I was opening this and Auckland had a 4.0 earthquake, unusual, which I hope portends the beer time come.

It’s a very dark brown beer, with a monster head of light brown, well carbonated, decent aroma of malts, but also some yeastiness. Head lingers too. All good so far.

It soft on the with a little bitterness, not an awful lot of body in this, and the pleasure is all derived from the flavour. Whilst it’s not challenging it avoids being bland and meh by having quite a lot going on on the palate, all very quietly going about what they do.

The darkness of this beer might put some off, and it’s colour doesn’t really match the taste delivery, this is a bit of a paradox in some respects.

The pdubyah-o-meter says 7.75 would be about right, it stumbles to achieve a greatness but quirky gets your attention and makes this an enjoyable experience.